Boost for murder family to expose ‘police failings’
THE family of a mother murdered by her violent boyfriend have won a legal campaign to push for a full inquest into her death.
Relatives of Susan Nicholson are fighting to expose what they allege are “police failings” in how her case was handled.
Susan was 52 when she was murdered by Robert Trigg, who had a history of violence, in 2011.
It happened five years after Trigg had killed another lover, Caroline Devlin, 35.
Trigg, 54, was jailed for life in 2017 for the murder of Susan and manslaughter of Caroline in Worthing,West Sussex.
But police failed to initially treat either death as suspicious and an inquest found Susan died of natural causes. She was only discovered to have been murdered after her family hired investigators.
An independent inquiry revealed Susan was visited by Sussex Police six times before her death and the family believe the force should have done more to protect her.
Now, after years of campaigning, relatives have been granted permission by the High Court to proceed with a legal bid for a full inquest.
The two-day hearing has been listed at the Queen’s Bench Division in March after the family raised £3,000 by crowdfunding. The family’s lawyers say Trigg, who was jailed for a minimum of 25 years, has argued the police did their job properly and the challenge should be dismissed. The lawyers say the
Sussex force also wants the judicial review to be stopped but will claim legal costs from the family if it wins.
Susan’s parents Peter and Elizabeth Skelton, both in their 80s, have argued for years that the police should have realised her life was in danger.
Peter said: “I do not believe Sussex Police did enough to protect Susan. They had all the information about Trigg’s history of violence against Susan and other women.We want to ask the officers what they did to protect Susan and we had hoped that Sussex Police would want that, to ensure that their officers are alert to the dangers faced by victims of domestic violence.
“We are hurt and disappointed they have chosen to fight our challenge.”
Trigg had a well-documented history of domestic violence towards at least three previous partners, which was made available to police, a pre-inquest review heard.
The independent inquiry identified “missed opportunities” in the original probe by Sussex Police.
Susan’s son Joe, 32, said: “Trigg would have killed again and again if my grandparents hadn’t fought so hard for Sussex Police to take my mum’s death seriously.”
Sussex Police said the force was “not in a position to comment”.